When the Snow Falls
by Jayjayk023
Summary: A time of remembrance. This story is set in the future.


"_A man is not old until regrets take the place of dreams." ~John Barrymore_

The snow was falling on the ground, the first time it was really sticking for the season. Ex-profiler Spencer Reid was sitting on a bench in the middle of the park in a winter coat and eyes closed.

His mouth lined with wrinkles from the smiles and laughs he had shared with his best friends, and family. The only family he ever really had. He was to busy working on his life long dreams and goals that he let the love of his life slip through his finger tips and any chance of having a real family, one that wasn't a surrogate, one that really and truly cared for him in a way a maternal figure cared for their infants go.

He had released around 5 books in his time from being retired from the BAU, but that was all. Reid had barely kept in touch with his team since he had filled out the papers. He had seen to many newbies come and go in his time with the FBI, and that wasn't going to change. Though he never would have suspected that he would carry around the guilt of knowing that he had disappointed his true family. Half of which he hadn't seen in a long, long time.

The news of Gideon's death was the first to truly break down Reid's structure that he had built for himself after he had read the letter then lit Gideon's cabin on fire oh so many nights ago. Gideon his mentor, and who had filled his own father's shoes before and after he had disappeared. Gideon who was now 6 feet under ground and had been for many years . The first to break the team.

Elle, nobody had heard from her since she left, they all suspected they never would, not even when she was as cold as the corpses they had looked at.

Rossi, he had retired just before he kicked the bucket. He wanted one last book to be written and published, his wish not coming true because he died of a heart attack 3 weeks after retirement. The team each receiving something in Rossi's will. Reid receiving most of his awards and medals, plus the original copies of each and every one of his books. He may have played the step-father role in this dysfunctional family but he showed that he still cared no matter how he acted when he first came back to the BAU.

Hotch, the miserable story that he owned. Never catching Foyet, had dwindled him down to nothing at all. He was a shell of a person, nothing more nothing less. The things keeping him from being whole was out there preying on his family, the family he no longer could protect. Death, what a quick easy way to get out but never finding Foyet made it so much harder to be able to kill him and bring him peace once and for all. Playing the superman role he had stumbled into a open hostage situation without a bullet proof vest on taking three rounds to the chest. The doctors claimed it was a quick a death.

JJ, dear lovable JJ. The media liaison who could lie to the public without even blinking, and still could go to sleep at night knowing that a killer was caught for the lies she had told. Traveling cross-country around the US and parts of Mexico and Canada started putting a strain on her marriage. It ended in divorce just liked most agents had, William taking everything and leaving her with nothing other then the nights and weekends she could visit her son Henry. She decided halfway through her second year of being separated that this job was nothing compared to the compassion and love she had for her family. Spencer and her got to gather on some days when he wasn't working and shared stories on how everything was going. Her marriage was renewed and her family restored though a piece of her was left behind with each of the remaining BAU member.

Emily, deciding she would never have kids of her own because finding a man would mean going on dates and spending time with him, when she simply didn't became a foster parent to 3 kids. Her real family, not related by blood but by the true essence of needing each other was how she came to be.

Morgan, meeting the women of his dreams wasn't hard. A marriage that had lasted, one of the few, granting Reid to be the godfather of his two sons. His life turning out to be the best out of all the profilers. He got life, and love and wasn't greedy because of what he had seen through his line of work. He had become the unit chief when Hotch had died, leading the team as if it was the most normal thing to do. He was a natural leader and proud of it.

Penelope Lynch, formally being called by her married last name from now on. Every little color and fuzziness was still intact in her heart and at her home. It kept her sane, it reminded her that even though the world is full of serial killers, rapist and mass murderers she still had that chance of knowing there was some good in this world.

Staring off into the distance he looked at the water and memories of the thing that finally broke him from the FBI came flooding back into place like a dam that had just been opened.

_Hollow screams echoed through the night as the killer unwrapped the bandages around Reid's wrists. They were cut and raw from the shackles that held in the underground place, away from the burning and blazing sun._

_The killer walked back in with a smirk on his face and his eyes lit with a fire that Reid knew all to well. The UNSUB himself was delusional and didn't know the difference form reality and alternate reality. He though of Spencer as his abusive brother, the brother that always was praised for what he had done. When the unsub had seen Reid he had taken a hatred toward him and kidnapping him was the least of Reid's worries._

_His throat raw form his screams as the the murderer yanked Reid up by his hazel colored hair and dragged him threw the trees and down to the river. At Reid's age he knew this would be the last time this could happen to him before worrying about his health. _

_The marks of blood being dropped was being soaked in the soil as they made their way to the riverbank._

_A leaf fell._

_His body being soaked to the brim was all Reid knew and his head being held underwater, cutting off the oxygen that he dearly needed to live. The time running out on whether or not these would be his last breaths or not, before hearing the echoing sound of the gun shot. POW! His name being called and dragging him back to the surface._

The sound of crunching leaves made Spencer shake his head and bring him back from that horrible memory. A young girl no more then 10 years of age came walking past with her mother and parents in tow. A family with one beating heart in the middle that kept them all going. Soon the bells will darken and they will get old and gray and become even wiser then himself.

The hurt he felt entirely was when his mother, lucid and not lucid at points but still his mother all together, had died. She was his rock his everything and nothing was going to change that. No one would be able to take her place.

Footsteps in the snow, making the crunching sounds then seeing the feet stop in front of him. Two hands reaching out and helping Spencer get up leading him to where the light was and where the end was near and sure he wasn't old and truly wrinkled he was much older in his mind then in the outside of his body.

Reid, the hermit of the group, never finding love or happiness except in those last few moments of his life.

"_To himself everyone is immortal; he may know that he is going to die, but he can never know that he is dead."-Samuel Butler_

_Author's note: this is my first time publishing in this fandom so I hope I have done it well and this is my first time writing in this format._


End file.
